EPTC 3 - full report

15:02:00
Ramona Dragomir
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EPTC 3 to take place in the town of Opel

If it’s an EPTC event then we are most likely in Germany. :-)) This time, the beautiful town of Rüsselsheim (also the residence of the Opel factories) being the host for the third EPTC tournament during 22-24 October. It’s been quite the adventure from the beginning, for the draw, the matches and the whole schedule were made public in the same day that the competition started, so we were a little worried about that. However, the live scoring system was working properly the whole time, so that was good news all the way.:-)This EPTC didn’t have a pre-qualifying day, so the big names appeared from the very first start to fight for a nice and cozy place into the Last 16. And since we are on the "big names" tag, I have to mention that Ronnie O`Sullivan withdraw from the competition (for those personal reasons you already know) and Ali Carter too, as he wanted to have more time to prepare for the Power Snooker event that starts next Saturday but also for the EPTC 4 event in Gloucester.

The first group to reach the Last 16 round was formed by: Ricky Walden, Barry Hawkins, Jamie Jones, Ken Doherty, Robert Milkins, Marcus Campbell, Stuart Bingham and Judd Trump.Ricky defeated Michael Holt 4-2, the PTC 4 winner Barry Pinches 4-1 and Andrew Pagett by the same score, Barry Hawkins kicked ass, as he won 4-2 over the "big" Stephen Hendry, 4-3 over Belgium’s Bjorn Haneveer and 4-1 over the Thai Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, Jamie crashed Ronnie Beniesch and Ralph Enax by a 4-0 scoreline and defeated the PTC 6 runner-up, Martin Gould 4-2 and the 1997 world champion Ken Doherty made a spectacular performance as he beat Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo 4-2, China’s Anda Zhang 4-2 and Jamie Cope by a 4-1 score.

Doherty made it through the semis

Robert Milkins made it through the next round as he won all his matches against the following: Hannes Huhn 4-1, Nigel Bond 4-2 and Jak Jones 4-1 and the Scot Marcus Campbell defeated Stephanie Ochoiski and Mark Joyce 4-1 and Kyren Wilson 4-2.Stuart Bingham put quite a show as he won 4-2 over Joe Swail and 4-3 over Adrian Gunnell and Mark King and the EPTC 1 champion, Judd Trump beat the Thai Noppon Saengkham 4-1, David Morris by the same scoreline and James Wattana by 4-2.

The second group to book a place in the Last 16 looked something like this: Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire, Peter Ebdon, Liang Wenbo, Marco Fu, Michael White, Andrew Higginson si Gerard Greene.Selby was the only one who ended all his matches on a total whitewash as he won over Chris Henry, Issara Kachaiwong and Jimmy Robertson 4-0, Stephen Maguire started his day with his opponent withdrawing from the competition (Joe Delaney), so he only played two matches, but won them fair and square, making a 4-2 score with Peter Lines and a 4-0 with Michael Wasley.Peter Ebdon, as usual reached the Last 16 by defeating all those who tried to resists, meaning he crashed Kurt Maflin 4-0, beat on a very tight score Shaun Murphy 4-3 and ended his session with a 4-2 victory over Tony Drago.Liang Wenbo was the one who made history during this EPTC, for he won 4-2 over Chen Zhe, he whitewashed his fellow-country Ding Junhui 4-0 and defeated the current world champion, Neil Robertson with a 4-1 scoreline.

Liang Wenbo - the EPTC 3 runner-up

The second Chinese from the competition, Marco Fu only faced two opponents as the first one withdraw from the tournament (Danny Douane), winning 4-3 over Liam Highfield and Luca Brecel, Michael White beat Andrew Norman and Tom Ford 4-3, but also Mike Dunn by a 4-1 scoreline, Andrew Higginson blasted as he ended his matches against Reanne Evans and Alan McManus by 4-0 in the end defeating the legend Steve Davis on a very thight 4-3 match and Gerard Greene surprised us all as he won 4-1 over Rune Kampe, 4-0 over Mark Williams and 4-3 over Liu Chuang.

So, here we were - the Last 16, but only eight who could pass through. Was a very tight battle, as many matches ended with a 4-3 score: Ken Doherty beat Jamie Jones, Judd Trump won over Stuart Bingham, Mark Selby defeated Stephen Maguire, Liang Wenbo said "bye,bye" to Peter Ebdon and Michael White erased Marco Fu.The last three to book a place into the next round were: Barry Hawkins, who won 4-2 over Ricky Walden, score that also made an appearance in the match between Andrew Higginson and Gerard Greene (the first being the winner) and Marcus Campbell secured a 4-1 victory over Robert Milkins.All being set for the quarter-finals, the boys were playing at their best. Ken Doherty and Marcus Campbell were the first two who made it to the semis, as they beat Barry Hawkins and Judd Trump by a 4-1 scoreline. Meanwhile, Liang Wenbo was winning with a 4-2 score the match against Mark Selby and Andrew Higginson was following this score patter as he beat Michael White.

A very struggling victory for Marcus Campbell in the semi-finals, for he ended the match against the Irish Ken Doherty on a very, very tight 4-3 scoreline. On the other hand, the Chinese Liang Wenbo was winning without any problems a place in the big final with a 4-1 result over Andrew Higginson.But soon, Liang Wenbo`s string of victories was about to end, as he was in for such a blowing minded whitewash in the final. Marcus Campbell succeeded in winning with an amazing 4-0 scoreline! What a nice surprise for the Scot! Moreover since this is his first ranking title! Congrats and hopefully more to come! ;-)

Marcus Campbell - EPTC 3`s champion

It was a very surprising competition this EPTC 3 event, as many names which entered the Last 16 round were not among the favorites. Big names like Jimmy White, Stephen Hendry or Mark Williams were to leave the competition very soon, Jimmy even losing his first match against Lasse Musterman 4-3. “The Nugget" Steve Davis was with one foot into the Last 16 round if it wasn’t for the defeat he suffered against Andrew Higginson. And not to mention Ding Junhui, who lost 4-0. Poor little guy! I don’t think he made a full recovery after being hammered by Neil Robertson in the last week Premier League.

So, one more time, congratulations to the new winner of the EPTC 3 event, Marcus Campbell, but also to all of the others players who have worked real hard to get to this point.The next EPTC, the forth one, will take place during 29-31 October and will be hosted by the new improved and glamorous South West Snooker Academy from Gloucester, UK. :-)